News – Tara Newley Arkle

Hosted by Soroptimist International of Weston-super-Mare, ‘Railing Against Abuse’ saw Dame Joan Collins and Tara Arkle join Soroptimists and others on a march held on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

For the third year running, Soroptimists, the International Women’s group and Women’s campaigner and writer, Tara Newley Arkle, daughter of Dame Joan Collins, campaigned to raise awareness of violence against women.

Tara explains the inspiration for the event: “The Loves me, Loves me not bookmark was the simple tool that the Soroptimists created that I used in my work as Domestic Abuse Case Coordinator for the local Domestic Abuse Service, Gemini Services. There was such a brilliant concept at work in the creation of this tool.

In 2015 the company I worked for needed to mark the day—the United Nations Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women—as part of their remit for supporting women. I said I would take it upon myself to organise something as I had left the organisation by then, and still wanted to support them somehow. All these elements came together when my company held its usual stall at one of the local support services conferences, and I met one of the Soroptimists. I spoke to her about how helpful the ‘Loves me, Loves me not’ bookmarks had been, and how I would like more to disseminate.

This led to the meeting with Melanie David of SI Weston-super-Mare, and the concept of a day travelling the region distributing bookmarks. ‘Soroptimists Railing Against Abuse’ was born!”